Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogle Bomb here. You may or may not have
Speaker 1: heard a rumor that the world supply of cork is dwindling. Cork,
Speaker 1: which is made from the bark of the cork oak
Speaker 1: tree or querk asu bear, is used in a variety
Speaker 1: of products, the most common being wine stoppers. So is
Speaker 1: there any truth behind the idea that we're running out
Speaker 1: of cork? Not at all. There's actually an abundance of
Speaker 1: this totally sustainable, eco friendly material. In fact, if you've
Speaker 1: ever traveled to the rural areas of southern Portugal, where
Speaker 1: most of the world's cork oak trees are grown, you've
Speaker 1: seen firsthand that the supposed shortage of the cork supply
Speaker 1: is a myth. Insiders in the cork industry, which employs
Speaker 1: and estimated thirty thousand workers in varied jobs, confirmed that
Speaker 1: there are plenty of cork oak trees to be found
Speaker 1: in the sustainable and environmentally harvested cork forests of Portugal.
Speaker 1: Regular planting in shores continuous and steady supply, but the
Speaker 1: process requires some patients. A newly planted cork oak trees
Speaker 1: need on average more than twenty five years of growth
Speaker 1: before their bark can first be harvested. Farmers must then
Speaker 1: wait another nine or ten years until the trees fully
Speaker 1: recover and are ready to have their outer bark layer
Speaker 1: harvested again. This approach yield a high quality raw material
Speaker 1: while enabling the trees to live about three hundred years.
Speaker 1: The takeaway there are said to be enough cork trees
Speaker 1: today in the sustainable cork forests of Portugal to last
Speaker 1: more than a hundred years. Translation, there's enough harvestable cork
Speaker 1: right this very moment to seal all of the wine
Speaker 1: bottles produced in the world for the coming century. So
Speaker 1: what led to the rumor that the world is running out?
Speaker 1: In nine the Portuguese government began to protect the cork
Speaker 1: tree by law from improper or out of season harvest
Speaker 1: because officials were worried the developers would clear out the
Speaker 1: cork forests to build. To stop this from happening, the
Speaker 1: government declared the cork oak tree endangered at that time.
Speaker 1: But more recently, something that might have fueled the rumble
Speaker 1: about a cork shortage or that cork is endangered and
Speaker 1: at risk of extinction, is that many companies in the
Speaker 1: wine industry began switching from traditional cork stoppers to plastic
Speaker 1: corks and screw caps. The reason a cork is much
Speaker 1: more expensive compared with the alternatives because it can be
Speaker 1: harvested only once a year by skilled farmers. Plus, using
Speaker 1: plastic or screw cap alternatives to cork pretty much removes
Speaker 1: the danger of losing wine due to cork rot. That's
Speaker 1: when natural cork starts falling apart and let's air into
Speaker 1: the wine bottle, which can ruin the wine. And that's
Speaker 1: really one of the two things you're supposed to be
Speaker 1: looking for when a server pours you. The first taste
Speaker 1: of a bottle at first, is it the bottle you ordered? Second?
Speaker 1: Is at vinegar instead of wine. The changeover to cork
Speaker 1: alternatives started happening in force in the nine nineties, but
Speaker 1: wineries had to convince people and wine drinkers in particul
Speaker 1: ler that it would be more beneficial to use the
Speaker 1: plastic corks or screw caps to seal wine bottles rather
Speaker 1: than cork stoppers. It's possible that some wineries began insinuating
Speaker 1: that cork is endangered so that more people might be
Speaker 1: willing to choose wines sealed with screw caps. The truth
Speaker 1: is the cork tree is not endangered, and because some
Speaker 1: winters prefer screw caps for various reasons, that's actually led
Speaker 1: to a decrease in demand for cork wine stoppers. So
Speaker 1: there's actually an abundance of cork and cork oak trees.
Speaker 1: And here's the cool part. That abundance has opened up
Speaker 1: a world of opportunity for the impermeable, lightweight, and moisture
Speaker 1: resistant material. Today, cork handbags and wallets are becoming popular
Speaker 1: leather alternatives, and cork is also used in flooring, shoes
Speaker 1: and other vegan accessories. Today's episode was written by Windy
Speaker 1: Bowman and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more on this
Speaker 1: and lots of other plentiful topics, visit our home planet
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